And She Never Gives Up
by mydoctortennant
Summary: When Gwen married Arthur, she didn't sign up to be one of those ladies who just sat back and do nothing when trouble arises!


He caught a glimpse of her as she ran down the cloisters towards the Great Hall and the make-shift hospital. He took off down the stone corridor after her- he was under his father's orders to make sure she stayed out of trouble.

He caught up with her easily and gently took a hold of her wrist and pulled her back towards the safety of the hide where the other noble women would be. He heard her grunt in disapproval. She planted her feet to the ground and glared up at him; "Guinevere please, you have to get out of here."

"I will not hide away and cower when I can help people," she pulled her wrist from his grasp, and glared at him; "You never stopped me before."

"Because i_before_/i you were not my wife. Please-"

"Because I am your wife you think you can tell me what I can and can not do?"

"That's not what I meant," he gave her an 'and you know it' look. She knew perfectly well that he would happily let her carry on with her individual duty to Gaius, "I want you safe."

"And safe I will be helping Gaius treat the injured."

Just when he was ready to give in and let her do as she wishes, he heard his father's voice exit his mouth; "I will not allow it."

Gwen scoffed; "You will not allow it? Then I married the wrong man," she eyed him sceptically and moved away from him to head towards the Great Hall, "I thought you were different."

"Guinevere-"

She turned on her heel and raised a commanding hand to point at him; "I will not be confined to my quarters because you do not trust me to look after myself!"

"Circumstances are different," he tried, there wasn't much more he could do; he'd already expressed his fathers thoughts, "If you are hurt, if you… die, well Camelot loses a Queen."

"I can-"

"Don't tell me you can look after yourself. Just let me worry," he gripped her loosely by the shoulders and looking at directly in the eye.

"I'm not the one fighting dangerous creatures; perhaps I should be the one to worry about you," she returned, her tone sombre. She bit on the edge of her lip and looked at him. He rarely came back completely unscathed.

"I'll be fine," she didn't believe him, but if he was going to paint the world with rainbows and sparkles she wasn't about to go against her personal beliefs so he could carry on with his. If he was going to fight the battle with no regard for the fact that he may not come back, she did not want to be sitting idly by.

"I will not stay here."

"Do whatever you see fit," Arthur conceded, still holding onto her shoulders and sternly looking her in the eye, "I have a creature to fend off. Please just keep yourself safe," he pulled her towards him and placed a quick kiss to her forehead before he ran back into the main courtyard.

She watched after him and sighed.

A part of her new role in Camelot was to act as doting wife and daughter-in-law, and a part of i_that_/i was to sit quietly in a room whilst the rest of the world went into a panic. She should at least try it, shouldn't she?

She watched Arthur walking away from her.

She had tried to sit there and remain with the other ladies of court and she'd gotten itchy feet. An so, once her husband was out of sight she carried on her path. She respected him, she truly did, but she couldn't leave the people, i_her_/i without assistance.

X

i_"It's for the best."_

"_Don't you start as well, Leon," Gwen glared up at him from her seat at the table in the quarters she shared with Arthur, "Two months ago with the last attack he let me aid Gaius. What is so different now?"_

"_You're married. That's what is different," she looked up at her friend. The Knight had become a wonderful confidante since he discovered their relationship a few months back. Now she was calling on him for some support. She thought she could rely on him to convince Arthur that she was not a normal lady; she didn't need to sit in a darkened room and wait out the attack._

"_Apart from titles and names nothing has changed."_

"_Maybe not in your eyes, Gwen, but from Arthur's- and Uther's- point-of-view, it has." Somewhere in-between the Dragon attacking Camelot and a point in time about three months ago, Uther had found out about his son's affair with Morgana's handmaiden. Three months ago he had informed his son that he would not protest should Arthur seek to further his 'contact' - as the king had put it – with her. Exactly when Uther had noticed his son's romantic irregularity, nobody really knew. All Gwen did know what that she wasn't about to question it. She was truly and completely happy for perhaps the first time in her life._

"_So I'm to be confined to 'safety'. Morgana was never treated as such!"_

"_Morgana was not married to the Crowned Prince! Look, I will not tell you to sit quietly, but I will tell you to keep out of trouble. I imagine you can manage that much," Leon stated before he too had to take his leave ready for battle._

_Gwen watched him leave and remained seated for a few moments. She sighed dejectedly and decided to make her way toward the confines that had been specified for her. _

_When she arrived Lady Miriam was already there along with Sir Kay's betrothed, Harriet. They were both sat with their sewing amicably chattering to each other. They were completely capable of ignoring the fact that people were being injured just beyond the stone walls of the castle._

_They greeted Gwen with a quick smile before continuing to chatter amongst themselves. They still didn't know what to make of the peasant-Queen. They treated her nicely enough to her face, but she knew that they spoke less keenly of her the second she was out of ear shot._

_Gwen watched them for a few minutes, her latest bodice sat in her lap, waiting for detailing to be added to it (something Arthur always appreciated- he'd run his fingers over it as he sat with her and as they spoke.) She watched them laugh and chatter and she could not understand how they did it./_i

x

When Arthur had asked Gwen to stay safe and to sit with the other ladies he had expected her to put up a fight. Just as she did.

In truth it was nice to have somebody else on his side for a change. When he was younger he had been the person who had been told to hide and keep safe; only allowed to join the knights in fighting when he was sixteen years old. Back then the battles had been few and far between.

Of course he didn't expect Gwen to sit down quietly and do nothing; just as he hadn't those few years ago. He'd always seen to those left behind making sure they were safe and pretending as if it was his father who had told him to do so. The memories of his childhood made him smile and forget his present situation for a brief minute, but the moment passed and he continued into battle, no longer a helpless little boy.

x

Gwen tried sitting with the other ladies of court for all of ten minutes before her feet got too itchy and she had to get out of the 'safe' confines of the room and down to the Great Hall. It wasn't as if she was asking to help Arthur fight the beast, all she wanted to do was help those who were injured and surely that wasn't too much to ask, with it being her usual role in times like these.

"Gwen? The King has instructed that you remain with the other noble women," this she knew and her conversation with Arthur moments previously proved it, but he was off fighting and she didn't want him doing that; of course she knew that she couldn't stop him so it was pointless trying, and he was the best defender of the people, but if he wasn't obeying her wishes, she wasn't obeying his. She wasn't a serving girl anymore.

"As much as I respect the King, Gaius, I can not sit back and watch people suffer whilst I sit and sew. I won't do it," she exclaimed. Gwen looked at Gaius sternly. She would not use her new status against him but if he tried to tell her to go back to the other ladies and wait...

"I will not make you do what you do not want to," he picked up a bowl of water and a clean cloth and held it out to her with a proud line of a smile on his face, "What I will say is that Sir Kay is in need of cleaning up."

"Thank you," she noted Sir Kay across the room, sat against one of the pillars with a bloody lip. He didn't look too badly hurt, but needed tending too and Gwen wasn't about to sit back and do nothing. She thought then of his betrothed, sitting back unaware of what was going on and scoffed.

"Gwen?"

"Sir Kay," she briefly curtsied before she knelt by his side.

"Does Arthur know you're here?"

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him," she dipped the cloth into the water and raised it to Kay's lip to clean the cut. On closer inspection she could see his bloodied knuckles as well.

"No, but the creature might."

His look was grim, "I can't sit by, letting him get injured, and not know. If I can help people, who is to stop me?"

"The King and his son?" Gwen cracked a smile as she started her gentle work on his knuckles; an injury which, it appeared, was less severe than she had originally thought upon seeing the bloodied graze.

"Arthur realises that I'll do what I think is best, even that goes against him. He'll respect my decision and let me see it through."

"Young love."

"What about you and Harriett?"

"She is more than happy to sit back and chat to Miriam," he said as Gwen finished, "And I'm more than happy to let her."

x

Arthur didn't see her to at first and thought that maybe she had taken heed to his words and gone back to safety with the other ladies. Of course, deep down he knew exactly where she would be and he wasn't surprised when she was the second person to appear at his side after Merlin had helped him in and Gaius had directed him over to a bench.

It wasn't a big injury; just a flesh wound. Gaius left Gwen to deal with him after concluding that he would, in actual fact, be fine and no doubt be back out fighting within the hour (though not if Gwen had anything to do with it.)

"You told me you'd be fine," Gwen stated as she cleaned the wound. She'd assisted Merlin when taking off his armour. Something she was used to doing for him after training with the knights. It became a part of their daily routine in the months leading up to their wedding.

"You were told to keep out of trouble," Arthur countered as he shifted to lean on his right hand to give Gwen better access to the wound on his abdomen.

"I'm not the one losing blood."

Arthur remained silent for a few minutes whilst she worked at ensuring the wound was cleaned to a satisfactory level. "Why do you need to defy everything I say?" he asked her with the hint of pride in his eye despite his reprimanding tone.

"Because people need my help. Would you sit back if your father told you to and not defend the city against the creatures?"

"Circumstances are different."

"How? Before we married this is exactly what I would have been doing and you wouldn't have stopped me then."

"You were never this difficult before," he joked. He took her hand from where it was tending to his wound and clasped his fingers around hers, "Why won't you let me worry about you?"

"You can worry about me. I worry about you, I always did. It doesn't make a difference," she squeezed his hand as she sat herself down beside him. It was still a novelty for them to be able to be publicly affectionate towards each other. Arthur revelled in the feeling and gently captured his wife's lips with his own. Gwen leaned into the kiss before breaking it off and leaning her forehead against his, "If you don't come back what do I do?"

"You carry on. You help my father."

"You honestly think he'd keep me at his side if you weren't here?"

"He's accepted you for who you are, what you were and who you will be. He respects your opinion as much as my own."

"I doubt that, Arthur," she reached for the dressing and wrapped it about his midriff tightly.

"It's true! I mean, I think he wishes you were less head strong, but at the same time, he realises that that is what will make you the best Queen Camelot has ever known."

"I i_really_/i doubt that."

"I don't," he kissed her forehead and smiled; "How about a deal? You can still assist Gaius when it's necessary if you don't worry about me while I'm gone."

"I can't do that, I'll always worry."

"Okay, unfair deal. How about... you can still assist Gaius when necessary if you let me worry about you."

"Only if I can worry about you," she countered, holding out her hand for him to shake. He smirked and nodded in agreement shaking her hand.

"Deal," he raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, "Now; if Leon appears with news that the fight is over, would you feel that you have helped enough of our people to come to bed?"

As if by magic Leon appeared in the doorway, victorious look on his face. Gwen smiled, amused.

"If Gaius has the situation under control I think I can commit to that."


End file.
